


The Peacemaker

by igrockspock



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Background Relationships, Friendship, Gen, Humor, Mild Spoilers, Star Trek Beyond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-26
Updated: 2016-07-26
Packaged: 2018-07-26 21:39:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7591399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/igrockspock/pseuds/igrockspock
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Spock and Kirk each discover that the other was planning to leave, they don't take it well.  Uhura is forced to intervene.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Peacemaker

When Spock and Kirk had barely spoken to each other for six days, Nyota decided that it wasn’t _their_ problem anymore. It was _her_ problem. Really, the problem should belong to the entire senior staff; the frosty silences and overly proper dialogue set everyone’s teeth on edge, but nobody else was willing to confront the issue, so Nyota was going to have to take one for the team and deal with it herself. 

The simplest option was to invite Jim over for dinner. She stationed herself outside his quarters before she made the communicator call, just in case he tried to escape.

“I’d like to come, I really would,” Jim said, almost managing to sound sincere. “But there’s, ah, a diplomatic emergency and --”

Nyota cut him off with a laugh. “ _Nobody_ is calling you for a diplomatic emergency.”

“Okay, well, if you really have to know, there are these Andorian triplets and --”

“They want you to join their foursome? That’s how Andorians reproduce, you know.”

“Not _siblings_ , Nyota. That would just be weird. Look, I’m not even in my quarters. I’m in the Andorian sector, and that’s a forty-five minute mag-lev ride, so you and Spock should really just go ahead and eat without me.”

That was the moment when Jim stepped out of his quarters. He didn’t actually scream when he saw Nyota waiting for him in the corridor, but it was a close thing.

“Not in your quarters, huh?” she asked, twirling her communicator in her hand. “Is there a reason you and Spock are avoiding each other?”

Jim clenched his jaw. “Look, it’s not a big deal. We’ll get over it. How did you get up here, anyway? Commodore Paris said this was a captain’s level, so…”

“You’re going to report me?” Nyota asked, looking at him incredulously. She seized Jim’s elbow and looped her arm through his. Possibly she sank her fingernails into his flesh. Just a little. “Disciplining me for violating protocol would be a total dick move. I’m going to forgive you for even suggesting it. So long as you come to dinner.”

With that, she set off down the Yorktown’s spacious corridors, dragging Jim along beside her.

***

There was no dinner in her quarters. Just Spock, pretending to be as calm. It was pointless; she saw the little twitch in his eyebrow that meant he was mad.

“Where’s the food?” Jim asked.

Nyota let go of his arm as soon as the door hissed shut behind her. “There is no food. Awkward family dinners are for couples who’ve been married for twenty-three years and hate each other but don’t have the balls to get divorced. We’re not there yet.”

Spock raised an eyebrow. “The implications of your statement are difficult to follow. Captain Kirk and I are not married, nor will we be.”

Nyota rolled her eyes. “Hetero lifemates. Work husbands. Whatever. And you only get literal when you’re trying to avoid talking about something.” She pulled out two chairs. She put a beer in front of one and poured a glass of Vulcan tea in front of the other. The alcohol would draw Jim like a magnet, and Spock could never refuse hospitality. That would be rude.

“What’s going on between the two of you?” she asked.

“Nothing,” Jim and Spock said together.

Nyota sighed. “Bullshit.” Neither man said anything, so she added, “Don’t insult my intelligence by lying. _Everyone_ knows something is going on, and you’re making the rest of us miserable.”

The corners of Spock’s mouth turned down infinitesimally. No one but Nyota would have noticed. He pretended to be studying something out the window, and he said, “Captain Kirk intended to leave.”

A fraction of a second later, Jim -- who was not looking at Spock -- said, “Spock was going to leave me.”

Nyota knew what was really important: the difference between ‘he was going to leave’ and ‘he was going to leave _me_ ’. But she was stuck on the part about Jim leaving.

“You were going to _leave_?” she said, swiveling her head to face Jim. “After everything we’ve been through?”

It was stupid that she should be this upset. After all, it wasn’t that long ago she’d lulled herself to sleep with fantasies about “accidentally” shooting Jim at target practice. She was in communications; poor combat skills would’ve been believable. Now, though, she couldn’t imagine the _Enterprise_ without him. She couldn’t imagine her _life_ without him. Which made her mad.

“I was tired, alright? Being a captain is kind of a lot.” He waved his hand around vaguely. “There’s always, you know, _lives_ depending on you. And all the aliens wanted to tear my shirt off, even though I thought I was getting this whole diplomacy thing down. The important thing is, I got over it. I decided to stay.”

Nyota sighed. “You’ve really got to learn how to delegate, Jim. There is no point in surrounding yourself with the most competent people in Starfleet if you won’t let us help you.”

“Yeah right,” Jim said, smirking. “You just want the diplomatic missions for yourself because you’re all scary and ambitious. First I send you on a couple first contact missions, then you take over my ship.”

“If I wanted to be captain, you know I would be,” Nyota said primly. Jim and Spock exchanged a knowing look. They almost looked friendly.

Then Jim opened his mouth again. “At least I had a valid reason. Applying for a promotion is a thing people do. Spock was _leaving_ leaving.”

Spock stiffened. A faint green blush spread along his cheekbones, and he clenched his jaw so hard Nyota could almost hear his teeth click. “You suffered an emotional crisis. I desired to contribute genetic material to my species in the wake of a genocidal attack.”

“And you couldn’t have just donated sperm to some lesbians?” Jim burst out. 

“ _Donated sperm to some lesbians_?” Spock repeated. Nyota hadn’t seen him look so intense since that one time he almost strangled Jim on the bridge. 

“That would be the logical alternative, wouldn’t? You told me how the other Vulcans treated you. And you were going to _leave_. For _them._ When your friends are _here_. How does that even make sense?” Jim said, looking at Spock defiantly.

Nyota took a long, shaky breath and put a steadying hand on Jim’s wrist. “Jim, I get the feeling that you have some abandonment issues,” she said as calmly as she could. “Spock, I think you should consider whether you can help a couple on New Vulcan who can’t have children on their own.” 

Spock raised an eyebrow. “You would accept that?” 

Nyota nodded, even though the idea of Spock having children freaked her out. “We should talk about it more. Privately. We’re focusing on you and Jim right now.”

By now, Jim was slumped back in his chair, his arms crossed over his chest. “I do not have abandonment issues.”

Nyota raised her eyebrows. Jim flinched and said, “Okay, so maybe I have some abandonment issues. That’s not why I’m mad.”

Spock stared at Jim impassively. Nyota would bet fifty credits he was fighting the urge to search ‘abandonment issues’ on his padd. Finally, he said, “Then what is the reason for your discontent, Captain?”

Jim rolled his eyes. “Stop calling me that. My name is Jim.”

“Then what is the reason for your discontent, Jim?” Spock said. Apparently, they’d moved on to the passive-aggressive sarcasm stage of the argument.

“Remember when you asked what fighting with Spock was like?” she asked, hoping to break the tension. She glanced toward Spock, who was still sitting ramrod straight, gripping his teacup like a Victorian grandmother. “ _That’s_ what it’s like. So anytime you want to finish this, be my guest.”

Jim twirled his empty beer glass on the table. Nyota wasn’t about to give him another, but he stood up and got it out of the fridge himself. “I’m mad because my friend and first officer didn’t even _tell_ me he was thinking of leaving.”

Nyota looked back toward Spock. “Is that why you’re mad at Jim?” She could see a tiny hint of defiance in his eyes and she added, “Don’t even _try_ to tell me you’re not mad.”

Spock returned his teacup to the saucer with a loud clink. “If the captain truly valued my counsel, he would have shared his distress with me. I could have assisted him in delegating tasks more effectively.”

A smile flickered across Jim’s face. “And I could’ve helped you find some lesbians who want your sperm.”

“Jim, please do not ever do that,” Spock said, unable to fully mask his horror at the idea.

Some of the tension leaked out of the room, and Nyota soldiered forward. She was hurt too, even if she didn’t want to admit it. “Jim, seriously, why didn’t you tell us? I thought we were better friends than that.”

Jim looked down at the floor. “We are. I just figured you’d try and talk me out of it.”

“Because I would have,” Nyota admitted. “Because it was a terrible decision, and as the sane person in this friendship, my job is to talk you out of terrible decisions.” She paused. “But I suppose you’re saying that I wouldn’t have listened to your very valid emotional concerns, and that would have been wrong of me. So I’ll try to do better next time.”

She looked back and forth from Jim to Spock. “See? This is how mature adults handle problems. We admit our feelings, and we admit when we’re wrong.”

Jim took a long, ostentatious drink of his beer as if to show what he thought of Nyota’s solution. Then he said, “Okay, Spock, why didn’t you tell me that you were thinking about leaving?”

Spock was silent for a long time. Finally, he said, “I do not know. In retrospect, informing you of my departure promptly would have provided you and the senior staff more time to prepare for the transition. However, I believe I did not wish to confront the reality of my decision.”

“Don’t feel bad,” Nyota said. “He told me the night before we got to Yorktown.”

“That was a total dick move, by the way,” Jim said, gesturing at Spock with his beer bottle.

“Yes,” Spock conceded gravely. “I am fortunate Nyota has forgiven me.”

“Well, a good person probably would understand why you wanted to save your species and all,” Jim conceded. “Truce?”

“Truce.” He frowned. “I suppose you will insist this matter can be fully resolved only through a human ritual of alcohol consumption.”

“ _Excess_ alcohol consumption,” Jim corrected. “And no weird analytical wine tasting things.”

“The description and analysis of fermented grape beverages is quite gratifying,” Spock said.

Nyota decided to intervene before the argument got out of hand. Again. “We’re not going to the trashy pub or the snooty wine bar,” she said. “And you’re buying my drinks. You both owe me.”

“Always,” Jim said with a smile.

“Indeed,” Spock added. He reached for the loaf of bread that was on the kitchen counter. “I will prepare by consuming large quantities of carbohydrates, and I will meet you in one hour.”


End file.
